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HOMELAND SECURITY

Moscow Massacre: Could it Happen Here? A troubling reflection on our open southern border – and on those who wish us harm. by Cal Thomas

https://www.frontpagemag.com/moscow-massacre-could-it-happen-here/

A mass shooting at a concert hall in Moscow killed more than 130 people. With many others seriously or gravely wounded the number of dead is likely to rise.

The Islamic state released a statement claiming “credit” for the incident. Eleven suspects have been arrested. Early reports suggested the U.S. Embassy in Moscow had advance warning of the attack. The Daily Mail reported White House Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby said: “Right now we don’t know to what extent this warning [from the US Embassy in early March] and this attack are related. But we had some concerns about the possibility of a terrorist attack in and around Moscow earlier this month.”

The question that must be asked, as it has been suggested for some time, due to our open southern border, is this: Could it happen here? The answer must be an unequivocal yes. In fact, it has already happened here on Sept. 11, 2001.

Does anyone seriously think America’s enemies would not be encouraged by that previous attack and the Moscow atrocity to conduct a repeat operation in America? With such easy access to the country and with so many fanatical beliefs floating around the world, what would deter them?

The Cato Institute has noted that since 2017,”US Border Patrol has apprehended 342 border crossers who were on the Terrorist Screening Dataset, also known as the terror watchlist. Those numbers have shot up in recent years to 169 in FY2023 and 49 to date this fiscal year. Last month, The Daily Caller reported that Border Patrol apprehended an al Shabaab terrorist and released him into the United States in March 2023 after a mismatch on the watchlist. Later, the government discovered that he was on the watchlist, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested him within 48 hours. The Daily Caller’s headline was “ICE Confirms It Finally Nabbed Terrorist Allowed To Roam Free For Almost A Year.”

The Coming Terrorist Attack on U.S. Soil, Part III Peter Kirsanow

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-coming-terrorist-attack-on-u-s-soil-part-iii/

The disaster at the southern border continues to grow. Border Patrol recorded an astonishing 250,000 encounters with illegal immigrants in December. This figure includes thousands of single, military-age men from China, Russia, and Iran.

The number of individuals on the terror watch list crossing the border has increased 2,500 percent during the Biden administration. In fiscal year 2023 more than 35,000 individuals with criminal records were arrested at the southern border, a tenfold increase since the beginning of Biden’s term (the actual figures are likely far larger since the reported numbers don’t include “gotaways,” conventionally estimated to constitute 50 percent of the total number of individuals entering the country illegally).

NORAD recently reported detecting more than a thousand unmanned-aerial-vehicle incursions along the border per month.

These alarming figures seem to have little impact on DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who regularly appears bored or distracted at congressional hearings concerning the border. His nonchalance is shared by many open-borders advocates, some of whom casually note that none of the individuals on the terror watch list who’ve crossed the border have committed a terrorist act on U.S. soil. Yet. This is what passes for reasoned analysis from open-borders elites.

Perhaps they calculate (or hope) that a terrorist attack won’t occur in their city; terrorists, after all, traditionally prefer high-profile targets. But not always. The terror might be magnified if the attack occurred in a place where people feel relatively safe — a minor-league baseball game in Wichita, a parade in Dubuque, a fair in Salem.

Or perhaps the elites calculate that terrorists entering the country today won’t execute their plans until the next administration. Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) would exclusively blame a Trump administration for anything that occurs on or after 12:01 p.m. on January 20, 2025, even if the attack were planned and executed solely by individuals who crossed the border during the Biden administration.

Pro-Palestinian Group Calls for ‘Intifada’ in NYC, Tells Supporters to ‘Find a Target’ and ‘Flood’ City By Zach Kessel

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/pro-palestinian-group-calls-for-intifada-in-nyc-tells-supporters-to-find-a-target-and-flood-city/

The pro-Palestinian activist group Within Our Lifetime (WOL) plans to hold a “Palestine is Everywhere” event in New York City from March 27 to 30, the organization announced, advertised in a flyer calling for “autonomous action” and “global intifada.”

The flyer, which WOL shared on its X page, directs the group’s supporters to “get a group together,” “find a target,” and “take action to defend Palestine.” WOL is urging its followers to “flood all of New York City” by taking “autonomous actions,” which include “de-occupations, assemblies and gatherings, public testimonies, roving shutdowns, sit-ins and slow downs, painting walls, wheatpastings, & other happenings.”

Iran has a shot at sinking a US Navy aircraft carrier Maya Carlin

https://centerforsecuritypolicy.org/iran-has-a-shot-at-sinking-a-us-navy-aircraft-carrier/

Could Iran Sink a U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier? Yes, There Is a Chance: On Tuesday, a cruise missile launched by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels came within one mile of an American warship. Typically, the Navy’s destroyers shoot down missile barrages launched by the rogue group at a range of eight miles or more.

For the first time since the uptick in attacks in the Red Sea commenced this Fall, however, a cruise missile came close enough for the USS Gravely to use its Close-In Weapon System (CIWS).

The Islamic Republic of Iran is increasingly threatening American interests in the Persian Gulf and throughout the Middle East. Its regional proxy groups have ramped up rocket, drone and missile barrages targeting U.S. assets following the Israel-Hamas war.

Do Iran or their affiliate groups have the capability to sink a U.S. aircraft carrier?

How Iran Could Sink a U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier 

In the final days of 2023, Iranian-state media outlets reported that its naval forces had developed a new cruise missile capable of reaching targets more than 600 miles away.

According to Tehran, the Talaeiyeh is a long-range “smart” missile that can switch targets and adjust course during flight.

The Nasir has short-range capabilities and can be launched from warships. News of these new missiles coincided with the attack on the Norwegian-owned tanker Strinda in mid-December.

The U.S. Central Command released that an Anti-Ship Cruise Missile launched from a Houthi-controlled region in Yemen struck the vessel. Since Hamas’ October 7 massacre, the Iranian-backed group has fired dozens of barrages of missile and drone attacks targeting vessels in the Red Sea.

At Least 160 Attacks Carried Out Against U.S. Forces in the Middle East Since Mid-October By Eric Lendrum

https://amgreatness.com/2024/01/30/at-least-160-attacks-carried-out-against-u-s-forces-in-the-middle-east-since-mid-october/

The attack against American troops in Jordan on Sunday, which took the lives of three soldiers, was the latest in a series of at least 160 terrorist attacks against American forces in the Middle East since October.

As reported by Fox News, U.S. officials revealed the true total number of attacks following the news of Sunday’s attack, which sparked widespread outrage and has led to calls for retaliation against Iran, which backed the proxy group responsible for the attack. It marked the deadliest attack on American forces since 2021.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, finally back from his controversial unannounced absence due to prostate cancer, issued a statement expressing his “outrage and sorrow for the deaths of three brave U.S. troops in Jordan and for the other troops who were wounded,” adding that “we will take all necessary actions to defend the U.S. and our troops.”

The base that was struck in Jordan is referred to as Tower 22, and houses roughly 350 troops who are stationed there primarily for the purpose of wiping out any remnants of the terrorist group ISIS. Most of the personnel on the base were asleep when the drone attacked.

“We are mourning with Americans across the country today who are mourning the deaths of three souls, three service members who lost their lives,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday. “As we all know, yesterday was a very dark day.”

The attack, and particularly Iran’s culpability, represents the latest escalation in tensions in the region, which began on October 7th when the Islamic terrorist group Hamas struck the state of Israel, killing over 1,400 civilians and launching a war between the two that is still ongoing. Elsewhere in the region, the Houthis in Yemen have begun attacking ships in the Red Sea and disrupting global maritime trade.

What We Don’t Know About the Danger of DEI in the Airline Industry is Scarier than What We Know By William Sullivan

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/01/what_we_dont_know_about_the_danger_of_dei_in_the_airline_industry_is_scarier_than_what_we_know.html

United Airlines became the subject of derision and mockery recently as a viral video emerged of United’s CEO Scott Kirby proclaiming his company’s potentially disastrous and deadly mission to have half of their future hires be “women or people of color” as part of its corporate quest for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), an ideological cancer that has been eating away at America’s academic, economic, and societal strength for years.

The reasons for the acute public outrage aren’t mysterious.  Millions of Americans fly commercially, and the idea of plummeting 30,000 feet over several minutes in anticipation of you and your family’s death is a frightening enough prospect for most people that the very idea of prioritizing race or gender in selecting pilots and mechanics seems nothing short of insane. 

And in the past weeks, we’ve learned that the door plug of an Alaska Airlines fuselage blew off of the aircraft at 16,000 feet, depressurizing the cabin and creating a scenario so harrowing and nightmarish that one passenger felt compelled to send a presumedly final text: “Mom our plane depressed. We’re in masks. I love you.”

The Boeing 737 Max was the plane involved, which some may remember was grounded after two deadly crashes overseas in 2018 and 2019, which claimed 346 lives in total and were both deemed the result of faulty equipment on the airplane. 

As many Americans are only now discovering as a sidenote to other outrageous DEI news, such as the FAA being decidedly hellbent on taking DEI to its most ludicrous extent by “actively recruiting” people who suffer from “severe intellectual abilities,” Boeing has also long been suicidally devoted to woke DEI initiatives.  They now claim, for example, that they want their employees to “look like America,” but are looking to have 92.5% of interview slates be “diverse,” i.e., non-white males.  This, of course, means that they are quite illegally prioritizing non-white male applicants for employment, and I am very much looking forward to the forthcoming lawsuits on these grounds. (See: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.)

A 43% Drop in White Recruits Caused the Army’s ‘Recruitment Crisis’ The real military recruitment crisis is DEI discrimination against white people. January 16, 2024 by Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/a-43-drop-in-white-recruits-caused-the-armys-recruitment-crisis/

The military recruitment crisis that has crippled our defense capabilities has been talked to death by generals, politicians and pundits who have blamed everything from rising minimum wages to obesity to Gen Z culture for the problem. They have raised enlistment bonuses to unprecedented levels, spent fortunes on ad campaigns that feature lesbian weddings and doubled down on DEI as the answer to the crisis. And yet the crisis has grown worse.

That’s because recruitment was a self-inflicted problem caused by a woke racist military.

Between 2018 and 2023, white Army recruits, once the mainstay, fell from a bare majority of 56% to a minority at 44%.

This was not an unintended effect, but policy.

“We are an Army that wants to look like America,” Maj. Gen. Kevin Vereen, the first black head of Army Recruiting Command, had proclaimed.

Gen. Gary Brito, the first black head of Army Training and Doctrine Command under whose purview recruiting falls, and the former deputy Army chief of staff for personnel, had boasted of Army “listening sessions” on racism, diversity and inclusion in order to maximize diversity.

Military brass had been tasked with creating a military that “looked more like America” and as a result the number of white Army recruits declined year by year and fell 43% from 44,042 in 2018 to 25,070 in 2023.

Black, Hispanic and other minority recruits became a majority, but there weren’t any more of them than there had been before. Minorities were joining the Army at the same rate as they had before, but with fewer white recruits they had become a majority by default.

Intel Officials: Hezbollah Could Strike in U.S. By Eric Lendrum

https://amgreatness.com/2024/01/12/intel-officials-hezbollah-could-strike-in-u-s/

On Wednesday, U.S. intelligence officials warned that the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah could launch attacks against Americans abroad, or even carry out an attack against the homeland directly.

As reported by the Washington Free Beacon, the four anonymous officials voiced their concerns to Politico, with one saying that “Hezbollah could draw on the capability they have … to put people [in] places to do something. It is something to be worried about.”

Hezbollah, the officials noted, has more capabilities than any other terror group in the region, including a vast international network. The ongoing tensions in Israel after the October 7th terrorist attacks by the Islamic terror group Hamas have led to broader chaos throughout the Middle East.

Hezbollah is one of the groups that has been clashing with Israeli forces since October 7th. On Tuesday, Hezbollah struck an Israeli base with drones, to which the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) responded by killing three Hezbollah members in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah tried to justify its attacks by claiming they were in retaliation for the killing of a Hamas leader in Beirut last week.

FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before the Senate in December that the threat of a foreign terrorist organization attacking the U.S. has increased since October 7th, saying that he sees “blinking lights everywhere I turn.”

Other escalations throughout the Middle East include the Yemeni Houthis repeatedly attacking ships in the Red Sea, disrupting a major maritime shipping lane, as well as militants in Iraq and Syria repeatedly attempting to attack American troops in both countries over 100 times. There was an explosion in Iran during a ceremony honoring the late Qasam Soleimani, killing roughly 100 people, for which the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) took credit.

Our Incompetent Elite is Opening Up America to Attack Our enemies are very serious about one particular thing. by Kurt Schlichter

https://www.frontpagemag.com/our-incompetent-elite-is-opening-up-america-to-attack/

My first Townhall Column of the year was my top 2024 predictions, but one prediction did not fit with its snarky vibe. Let me make it now. In 2024, we’re going to see a massive terrorist attack here in the United States. I’m not going to sugarcoat it – I’m worried that we’re facing a terrorist threat unlike anything we’ve ever seen and that a lot of Americans are going to die. It does not have to happen, but because the people running this country are so corrupt, malicious, and incompetent, it will.

The people running this country have made choices – like throwing open the border – that are going to kill a lot of Americans because our enemies, unlike our alleged leaders, are serious people. They’re serious about subjugating and killing us. But the only things our leadership is serious about are keeping their names off pervert passenger lists, skimming endless Ukrainian cash, and pronouns, pronouns, pronouns, always pronouns. We have a distinctly unserious elite in the most serious of times.

When October 7 happened, we saw the Israelis caught unawares by an asymmetrical attack where a determined and cunning foe leveraged all its limited strengths against the Jewish state’s very few weaknesses, allowing Hamas to execute a short but bloody rape and murder spree. Understand that 10/7 was not a military assault, though it used violent means. It was an information operation, an operation designed not primarily to destroy the combat power of the IDF but to attack the will of the Israeli people and force Israel to change its policies. That did not work. Israel was stronger than Hamas imagined, and it hit back harder and more consistently than the terrorists expected, despite the shameful backstabbing by the Biden administration and the screaming of the terrorist wing of the Democrat Party here at home.

Second Largest U.S. Land Owner Is a CCP Member

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/saraharnold/2024/01/11/second-largest-us-land-owner-is-a-ccp-member-n2633516

The second-largest foreign landowner in the United States is a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). 

According to a report reviewed by the Daily Caller, Chen Tianqiao— founder, chairman, and CEO of global investment firm Shanda Group, owns nearly 200,000 acres of land in Oregon. 

The Chinese national made billions from online gaming, making him one of the most significant non-American landholders in the U.S. In only five years, Tianqiao became one of China’s largest Internet companies, producing some of today’s most popular games, such as, “The Word of Legend,” “Dungeons & Dragons Online,” and “Final Fantasy XIV.”